Israel Releases Custodian Arrested after Tension at Aqsa Mosque

Sheikh Abdel-Azeem Salhab, who sits on the religious council appointed by Jordan to oversee the Islamic sites at the compound, personally reopened the gate leading into the Bab al-Rahma Mosque Friday. Hundreds of Muslims went inside to pray for the first time in years.

It followed days of tensions between Israeli forces and the Muslim religious authorities over access to a corner of the 14-hectare sacred Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

In the buildup to Friday prayers, Israeli troops arrested 60 people, and boosted the security presence in the Old City.

Israeli officials told Reuters Salhab and another person were arrested Sunday morning, two days after the incident, for breaching an order, and that they were being held for questioning. Salhab’s lawyer said Israel had banned him from accessing the compound for a week.

The small Bab al-Rahma Mosque that Salhab opened lies on the eastern side of the compound.

Saeb Erekat, a senior aide to President Mahmoud Abbas, denounced the arrests “in the strongest terms” and demanded their immediate release.

Abdel-Nasser Moussa Abu al-Basal, Jordan’s minister in charge of waqf and Islamic affairs, called it “an unacceptable and dangerous escalation that impacts Jordan’s role as a caretaker of Jerusalem’s holy sites.”

Because of the religious sensitivities over the site, the king of Jordan retains a role in ensuring the upkeep of the Muslim holy places in the city and Jordan appoints the Waqf Council, which oversees compound.

Access was closed by an Israeli court order in 2003 during the second Palestinian intifada (uprising).

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